Waffle Iron Cookies

When my sister, Paula Kaser Price, inherited our mother’s waffle irons and the oil-stained recipe , she also inherited memories and tradition. Paula’s story gives us a great example of how donning an apron can lead us back to our memories of those family members long gone. Besides traveling back in time, the story travels from Hilliard, Ohio to Scottsdale Arizona to her home today in Virginia.

UPDATE: Paula adds, “It is a team effort as one cook frys the other dusts each cookie with powdered sugar. They are delicate so the rule is if any break the cooks must eat them immediately.” And what a shame that would be!

A Note From My Sister, Paula Kaser Price

In later years Mom and I spent a day making waffle iron cookies. The boys were sent away and we started cookin’. We had a wonderful time especially when the “boys” (Dad, Wayne, Eric and Aaron) showed up and gobbled them up getting powered sugar everywhere. Several dozen cookies were carefully hidden away before their arrival.

Paul and I carry on the tradition spending a day making them then distributing waffle iron cookies to friends. Still use the stained recipe paper with Mom’s handwritten notes.

The Original Recipe

Because each cookie is made individually, given time to dry then sprinkled with powdered sugar, it is a time consuming and messy project. We always made at least a double batch, many times a double double batch. Mom wrote the doubled amounts on the recipe. The recipe came with the box of irons that are in the shape of a snow flake and a Christmas tree.

The past several years, because the recipe paper is torn in half and so oil soaked as to be difficult to read, I have thought I should rewrite it on clean paper. Then I reject the idea because using that recipe paper with Mom’s calculations is like having her spirit there watching over Paul and me and joining in with our fun listening to Christmas music, laughing, getting powdered sugar everywhere, anticipating the joy our labor will bring and the happy exhaustion at the end of the day.

So like Mom and I did In the 80s standing around the counter in my little house on Latham [Street, Scottsdale, AZ], Paul and I stand around the counter in our little house in the woods and fry us up some Christmas cookies.

Waffle Iron cookies with Santa

Sorry they don’t ship well. Also sorry I wondered down memory lane. Oh well, it is that time of year.

PS. Do you recognize the table cloth under the waffle box? It was always on the Christmas dining table in Hilliard. I think I remember being with Mom when she bought it at Lazarus [Department Store in Columbus OH]. Unfortunately now I can only use it folded in half as there is an ever growing hole on one side.

Recipe for Waffle Iron Cookies, AKA Rosettes

Waffle Iron Cookies

Mother made "waffle cookies", a deep fried confection known as rosettes in Scandinavian countries.

Ingredients

2lb shortening or oil (For frying)

1 cup flour (Sifted or fluffed before measuring)

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg (Beaten)

confectioner's sugar (To sprinkle over finished waffle cookie.)

Directions

1.

Heat about 2 inches of oil or shortening 350 degrees

2.

Mix milk, water, sugar, salt and egg together. Stir slowly into flour, then beat until smooth. Batter should be smooth and alost as thick as cream.

3.

Heat waffle iron (rosette) in hot oil.

4.

Dip iron into batter being careful not to get batter on top of the iron.

5.

Dip the battered iron into the oil. As soon as batter begins to separate from the iron, gradually lift it up and allow Waffle to drop off into oil. When waffle is brown on one side, turn to brown on other side. Remove waffle from oil. Drain on paper towel.

6.

Sift confectioner's sugar over the waffle when cooled. (Optional: add cinnamon and/or nutmeg to the sugar)

A reader asks about the term “fluffing the flour”.Here’s my source. I suggest this alternate because I realize to younger cooks, the flour sifter is a relic of the past. Sifting is no longer “a thing.” Do you use a flour sifter?

About Vera Marie Badertscher

I am a grandma and was named for my grandma. I've been an actress, a political strategist and a writer.I grew up in various places, went to high school in Killbuck, Ohio and graduated from Ohio State University. My husband and I moved to Arizona after graduation and have three adult children. I love to travel and read. I ponder family as I cook. Look for my DNA profile on Ancestry.

Cathy, I should have linked King Arthur Flour’s website, where I first read about fluffing. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/how-to-measure-flour.html However, long before that, I had learned that flour sifters are a relic of the past, and younger cooks do not believe in sifting before measuring. I still sometimes sift if I’m doing an older recipe, where they assumed sifting. However, fluffing the flour with a fork and then spooning it loosely into the cup and leveling with a knife really does achieve the same effect.